Episode 313: Mama’s Family, Golden Girls and It’s Always Sunny | 90s TV Babies
The Conversation
- ROOKIE MOVE: Sailor did ALL the homework -- AND the Extra Credit!
- EVERYBODY’S AWFUL: How Mama’s Family is just like… It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia???
- Serita likes how the cast is filled with a variety of female characters who aren’t perfect people: “Women deserve to be bad, too!”
- BIG HIGH SCHOOL WIG: Vicki Lawrence’s “Mama” looks vastly younger than her own children!
- Serita likes that the MEN were most often the butt of the joke.
- SAME AS IT EVER WAS: Megan says: “We really don’t have classic sitcoms anymore where people DON’T grow and change. Mama's Family is comforting!”
- Serita says “these people act a fool” -- and she’s here for it!
- ON CELLMATES - Sailor: “If I had a nickel for every time sitcom characters get locked up together in a jail cell, along with a sex worker, and then get mistaken for being a sex worker… I would have... several nickels.”
- Did Mama’s Family portray sex workers with more equity than most?
- The shockingly honest way Mama’s Family addresses marriage -- and how it’s not always a romantic dream come true.
- Sailor was blown away by “Rashomama”: “’Mama’s Family’ is doing a riff on an Akira Kurosawa movie?? Yes!!”
- IS IT FEMINIST? PROGRESSIVE?
- Megan: “‘Mama’s Family’ is feminist -- but not progressive.”
- Serita: “’Mama’s Family is feminist -- AND progressive.”
- Sailor: “’Mama’s Family is semi-progressive -- and semi-feminist.”
AND… The Babies challenge Susan and Sharon to watch It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia!
So, join Susan and Sharon -- and Serita and Megan and Sailor -- as they talk Abbott Elementary, Alan Alda, August babies!, Golden Girls, Coors Light, Die Hard, test boobs, Whoopi Goldberg -- and the “Sailor Franklin SitCom Spectrum”!
Our Audio-ography
UPDATE: Find all SIX seasons of Mama’s Family free -- on Pluto TV.
Buy the streaming series at Amazon.
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Check DontGetPurged.org to make sure your name has not been purged from voter rolls!
Find out more about CREW at CitizensForEthics.org
VITAL READING
Get Handbook for A Post-Roe America by Robin Marty at Bookshop.org.
Check out Men In Dark Times by Hannah Ahrendt at Bookshop.org.
Read Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson at Bookshop.org.
You can also follow Richardson’s substack.
SUPPORT FOR THE LA FIRES
Online at DisasterAssistance.gov
On the FEMA App for mobile devices.
More resources at Eaton Canyon Community Relief.
Google List of LA County Resources.
PLACES TO VOLUNTEER
Google Doc for Wednesday and ongoing.
Volunteer with the Red Cross.
TALK TO SOMEONE
Reach out to friends and family. Take care of yourself:
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DONATING
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Displaced Black families in Altadena Google Doc.
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SPECIAL MESSAGE
CREDITS
Credits: 80s TV Ladies™ Episode 313.
Produced by 134 West, Summerland Entertainment and Susan Lambert Hatem. Hosted by Susan Lambert Hatem and Sharon Johnson. Guest: Serita Fontanesi, Megan Ruble and Sailor Franklin. Sound Engineer and Editor: Kevin Ducey. Producers: Melissa Roth, Sharon Johnson, Richard Hatem. Associate Producers: Sergio Perez, Sailor Franklin. Music by Amy Engelhardt. Copyright 2025 134 West, LLC and Susan Lambert. All Rights Reserved.
